Computers Suck
Scott Rippee @ 12:57 am March 5th, 2006How long can it possibly take to get some pictures off of your Treo 650? At least a day. How much longer? I do not know because I still have not managed to achieve this simple task!
A long story, ummm not short…. :)
What happened was that a week ago I needed to upgrade Ubuntu on my Averatec 6200 laptop so I could use gcc 4 and and checkout the new goods in Breezy Badger. I decided to backup some stuff and just reinstall because I heard that upgrading via apt-get was a pain. Looking back, I should have tried the upgrade to see what pains whould arise. Systems like Gentoo are very nice in this regard because they almost painlessly continously keep the whole system up to date in such a way that you don’t have to do anything special, as far as changing settings, to be using the newest stuff.
The laptop was set up dual booting windows and Ubuntu and this was cool because I could go into windows to connect to my palm and do other misc. windows thingies. Unfornately the Ubuntu install of Breezy went horrible and would crash at the same spot every time (copying openOffice to the hard drive). I even checked the md5 of the image and burned it twice. This is such a shame because it is the only distro, I have found, that can get almost every piece of its hardware working automaticaly.
So the install left the Grub bootloader in limbo and I couldn’t get into windows to hotsync my Palm. I wanted some stupid pictures off of it so I could include them in a post I had written ealier. At this point I decided I could either reinstall a different Linux distro, put the factory CD in to get windows back, try out the OSx86 install, or figure out a different way to get the pictures off of the Palm.
I probably spent 20 minutes trying to email myself a few pictures off of the damn Treo, but VersaMail likes to crash and/or act like it is sending the mail, but is instead just dropping it in the drafts folder. I next started downloading Fedora (Do they have good out of the box laptop support?). I got the whole thing downloaded, but went to burn the first cd and failed. My favorite burning app k3b wouldn’t load because of a problem it had with one of HAL’s libraries. I tried creating some symbolic links, but the app then crashed in other places. It didn’t like being tricked. As most of us know gentoo can also have its own special problems. I then tried xcdroast, but I grew short of patience and couldn’t figure out how to do much of anything with it, certainly not burn an iso to a cd. Damn you gentoo-64 and those damn burning apps.
I think after this I pulled out some hair, tried to email myself the pictures again, cried some under my bed, tried to hot sync my palm on my parents windows box, muttered about over sized paper weights when their comptuer didn’t work, and then decided that installing OSX was somehow going to make this whole thing a lot easier. This was of course wrong but it turned out to be pretty cool anyways.
Mac OSX on Intel is pretty smooth. The install from the image was simple, but it did take a long time (~ 2 hours). After that everything went good and it ran quick on the laptop. I decided to try to install the Palm software so I could hot sync to it. This went well and when I tried hot syncing I got a message saying that there was not enough memory on the Treo to complete the sync. I move a few of the files to the expansion card and everything worked fine. This was probably the same problem when I was trying on my praents box but no helpful message then, damn. The only problems in OSX was that my ethernet card, wireless, and sound don’t work so I was out of luck for getting the pics off of that computer.
I did find drivers for my wireless card for OSX and I was able to use my digital camera to copy them over to the laptop (yeah I could have just copied the pictures, that I hot synced, to my other computer like this, but that option seemed to have slipped my mind).
For some reason I couldn’t open the network settings in OSX after doing something funky in there ealier and I couldn’t figure out any way of reversing this problem. So I am currently in the process of starting the install over again. This time I left a partition to stick Linux on, which is good thinking because I will be doing that very soon.
Only about an hour left until this install is done and I can give those wireless drivers a try. Very cool stuff. To bad I will be asleep, trying to grow those tufts of hair back. :)
March 5th, 2006 at 2:34 am
hey hey, found your blog by blogmad :D. like it very much, i love the look. have a gr8 sunday! xxx
March 5th, 2006 at 7:26 am
Only 1 week until my OSx86 has d/led. :
March 5th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Thats cool. A week is a long time but not bad at all. I lucked out and had it handed to me. :) Unfornately those wireless drivers didn’t work. When I run the app that came with them it says it can not find the device (ra2500). Today I am going to find a network card that I can add to this thing that is known to work.
Now I wish I could just go out and buy a nice MacTel laptop! That wiill have to wait a while.
March 5th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
I was lucky enough to find this really helpful information for finding a compatable ethernet. http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html I will be doing ethernet to usb and loading the drivers he has linked to.
I went with the D-Link DUB-E100. It looks a little bluky but not to bad.MWave gave me a suprise 10 dollars off and cheap 2 day shipping! Sweet, total price$25.29. Not bad.
March 5th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Holy crap! I’m glad now that I went with the P910a instead of the Treo. I can just copy my pictures onto my expansion card. As long as I have a card reader then I can get my photos (Linux or Windows).
March 5th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I can do this also, copy the files to my expansion card. But alas I have no card reader. I figured I could have put the card into my camera and then hooked it up to my Linux box and read the stuff but I was afraid that my camera would have erased the data. That will be something to try after I get the treo hotsynced and have a back up of the data. I still need to load some music on the thing so I feel like I didn’t waste the mula buying the gig card + it will give me some good stuff to listen to at work.
March 5th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Ahhh… you need to buy a reader instead of even bothering with the camera thing. They are cheap, I have three (one for work and two for home). It should make data transfer a hell of a lot faster too.
March 7th, 2006 at 5:49 am
Yeah. Get a card reader. I find them indespensible. Imagine being able to install apps and transfer pics without hotsyncing. Plus you can then put mp3s on your card.
March 7th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Okay I am convinced. Does anyone know if this, the ATP Electronic All-In-One Card Reader AF-MF4-USB2, is a good deal. Only 14 bucks!
March 7th, 2006 at 8:37 am
No, I haven’t used that card reader. I own a Viking, Belkin, and Sandisk multi-card readers. All have been spectacular. I haven’t noticed any difference in transfer rate or files getting corrupted during transfers.
The thing that worries me is the statement "with multiple-slots can read and write each kind of flash memory cards existing in the market now." I doubt this does all the formats. There are so many out right now I find that hard to believe. I forgot what type is used in the Treo. If it is an SD card like my Tungsten E then you are probably safe. I had a bit of trouble finding readers that worked for Memory Stick Pro Duos when I bought my flash reader/writers.
To be absolutely safe I would go with a Belkin or Sandisk. I have never had problems with those brands. You will pay a bit more for the name though.
March 7th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I use this to xfer. It just works.
March 7th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Thanks for all of the tips Bucho. You are the card reader master but I guess I already knew that. The card I have in it right now says Scan Disk Ultra II. My camera seems to use the SD card also.
Thanks for the link Erik! This card looks awesome, is small, and handles what I need. Its a great price too so I am probably going to order this one. It will not be going on my key chain though as I would like to have it around for longer than two days. :)
My main motivation for getting the ATP was that I liked how it looked with the blue. Isn’t it good to know that this is how I make my technology buying decisions.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
This rocks! I am writing this from OSX so that DLINK USB ethernet card works with the drivers from that web page! Ahhhh so cool.. But what sucks is that the D-Link module is freaking huge! It is much bigger than I expected from the picture and if feels like it is hollow. I am sure they could have fit all of the components into a box 1/8 of its size. The thing should have came with its own carrying case!
April 4th, 2007 at 8:47 am
You can Suck My Yoohoo cuz My Com. Rocks Your World
April 4th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I’m just Kidding Im just warming up to you Cause Im Gay Like a HOMO. I Suck French Commanders. Scotty, You’re a Friggin Idiot. BLOW ME!!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Agent Lemon,
April 4th, 2007 at 8:57 am
lalalalalalalalalalaala agent lemon is awesome
April 4th, 2007 at 8:57 am
You guys there?
April 4th, 2007 at 8:58 am
You are a friggin idiot Agent Lemonhead. Hahaha! You like my jokes you fruit… but seriously.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:59 am
agent orange is gay
April 4th, 2007 at 9:00 am
yea i’m here agent lemon
April 4th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Hooray, I hope Scotty doesnt mind were using this as a IM.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am
me either i don’t think he does cause……….he’s a bitch!!!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am
If you guys want to find me to suck my yoohoo, Im at High School of Fags.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am
lmao hahahahahahahahahaaahahqahahhahaahahahahahahaha funny Capt Dickweed u pansy!!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am
What A Dick weed. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I made a funny
April 4th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Dude, Scott, Im really sorry for screwing this up, seriously. I’ll just stop commenting ever again on this website. Seriously. There are two other people cuz I’m only capt. Dickweed. Seriously.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Tis but a flesh wound. Ive had worse!!!!!!! U pansy I fart in your general direction.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:06 am
hahahaahahahahahaah dck and weed cause thats his name Capt dick weed i get it!!!!!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Oh really
April 4th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Im done Ill see you later. Thanks Scotty
April 4th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Its so good to hear from our friend at Aquinas high school. Keep up the studies
April 16th, 2007 at 8:30 am
o we will scott
April 16th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Thanks… sorry about that scott, were done